Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1887-04-16
JOAQUIN MILLER.
HE WRITES ABOUT AN OLD MINING
CAMP.
Shasta City and the Mountain Called
Observation-Disclosures of the Times
When Men Mined Gold with Pick and
Shovel-Other Matters of Interest.
Especial Correspondence


nento river on the iron grooves of the railroad
since my last We are few hours nearer
Oregon now. We are right before Mount
Shasta and the world of eternal snow. This
long pine covered and oak clad water shed
sloping down toward the south from Mount
Shasta, is the California Piedmont It is
much like the Piedmont of Italy and not m
like the famous Piedmont of Virginia. This
region is fairly well watered from natural
springs which bubble up out of the ground.
fed from melting SHOWS on the majestic
mountains before us, and out of which flow
the headwaters of the Sacramento river
And little cost and care in diyertinp this
river and the smaller mountain streams ont
over this rich soil would make it all very
profitable. AT present the land is dry in the
summer; too dry to advise you to settle on it
without first making certain that you are to
have plenty of water available
Nearly all this ground that lies in ravines
and gulches has been washed over and over.
Jome of it five and even ten times, for gold.
1t was famously rich mining camp thirty
years ago. And here dug for gold, working
by the side of strong men, when but a lad
The new generation may be curious to know
how the various mines throughout California
were found. Let me briefly state that the
first men in these mines were a sort of mad
men, Like CorteZ and his men they expected
every day, every hour, to come upon untold
wealth. Men really expected to find great
mountains of gold, or at least nuggets as bigas
barns. l remember that l always, day after
day year after year, expected to some time and
In some sudden and strange way stumble upon
colossal fortune. Yet if l should receive
twenty-five cents day and board for what
! work did in the mines, there would today
! be quite balance to my credit, and 100000
miners could say as much. No, the mines
! never paid the men who worked them at ALL
| either in this rich camp or elsewhere. But
| the gold that was dug out contributed to the
| wealth OF the world and carried it on and ND
| so that no one ought to complain. The great
| big Jumps OF gold, however, were never
| found You can search the gold his
| tory of all Australia through, as well
| as California, and be surprised to learn
| that there was never yet single lump
or nugget of gold found too heavy to be han
| died even by a woman. Many nuggets were
| found, it is true, that were very promising in
| weight and size, but that was all. Yet they
were like alluring beacon lights, and every
new nugget or new and rich deposit of dust
only excited men the more; and SO, like the
| gold hunting Spaniards, they pierced every
mountain pass, every canyon, and burrowed
in the bed of every river on the western slope
before they had been here a single year. 1t is
a notable fact that all the placer mines of
| California were found during the first few
months. The Comstock mines. bear in mind,
are of quite another character. In the placers
we washed the gold out of the dirt and put it
in our purses the same day, clean and ready
| for the mint, while the gold or silver from
the Comstock and other similar mines is
| ground out of solid rock by a long and tedious
| process. remember we Used to wonder why
we never found any silver. But while per-
haps as many mountains of silver as of gold
have been washed down, scattering silver dust
up and down the gulches, you must know
that silver dust corrodes and perishes, while
| gold dust endures forever.
These mines here in Shasta were found by
four Oregonians They made "rocker" out
of boards split from sugar pine tree, which
they cut down for that purpose, and crooked"
| out their fortunes in few weeks. Then they
pushed on through the wilderness to their
| homes in Oregon, and sent small party by
| water to San Francisco to get a stronger
force and push up the Sacramento river to
this spot from where | now write. Ex-Gover-
nor Boggs, of Missouri, whose wife was a
granddaughter of Daniel Boone, threw his
sons aud his fortune into the expedition, and
| of course. expected tremendous results. But
alas for miners luck! One Of the great grand
sons of Daniel Boone, who was one of the
leaders of the expedition, told me only few
DAYS since, in San Francisco, that nearly all
of the cattle and some Of the men persisted
from the extreme heat and for want of water,
and the rest were glad to leave everything
behind them in the wilderness and escape
with their lives.
But when first came to this place-in 1855
it was very far from being a wilderness. 1t
was here that first saw a brick house or a hotel
of any sort above the size and capacity of q
roadside inn. This indeed was my first city
my first glimpse of civilization l had been
badly bitten in one Of the little Indian bottoms
little further on up the river toward the
OREGON line and was brought down here for
treatment ] was brought into the place on
a mule one evening after the many lamps
were lighted in the one long and densely
crowded street, and it seems to me shall
never see anything so beautiful as was that
scene-the braying mules the shouting Mex
lean packers or drivers, the red shirted miners
crowding each other or shouting hurriedly
|
was soon able to creep about and picked
up a young fellow almost as weak and helpless
as myself for a "pardner," and, pooling our
few ounces of dust, we bought pretty little
"rocker" for IS, a fifty pound sack of flour for
SIS, box of yeast powders for fifty cents,
long fitch of bacon for 81, and so went oat
from the town. took up a claim ana became
miners. But it was sorry struggle we
worked hard lived hard, tried hard in every
way to get few hundred dollars ahead, but
in vain Ny ''parduer" was nice, sensitive
Young fellow of fine education and noble
nature. But we did not get on, and when
spring came we separated and tried other and
various pursuits.
The miners were very thick on the ground;
so very thick that all this region for twenty
miles around was one surging mass OF men.
There were easily q hundred men here then to
where there is one now. We were never OUT
of sioht of each other while at work. and
were in mailing distance of many toAlng,
handsome, good natured fellows all the time.
And | want to record my protest against the
many stories of reckleSsneSS that are laid to
the doors of the early miners here. Whatever
may have come after them, these first miners
were sober and quiet. Ny fellow miner and
mariner, Volney Abbey by name, and now IL
Kansas, was something of scholar and fono
of reading Homer, and so he named the tor
) irons little stream on which we dug for gold
the Meander 1t was a sweet spot where we
: had made our camp under a giant oak, and
had delicious spring of water, and altogether
il was a place that ! remember with much
tenderness. Indeed, to confess the truth
| nd a